more on Captured on Tape: 60 Minutes Exposes the Maker (GLAXO) of the #1 Most Fatal Drug of 2009

[Guest guest]

Added Mercola's comments below

You think its any different for vaccines?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/01/18/sixty-minutes-exposes-why-you-cant-trust-drug-companies.aspx

SEE VIDEO on webpage

Captured on Tape: 60 Minutes Exposes the Maker of the #1 Most Fatal Drug

of 2009

Drug company whistle-blower Cheryl Eckard talks about her experience

trying to fix problems at GlaxoKline. Her discoveries about

the dangerous practices of the company made her a key figure in a federal

lawsuit.

You may remember this

story from last November when it first hit the news. But in the 60

Minutes interview above, whistleblower Cheryl Eckard opens up to reveal

even more disturbing details about the gross negligence at the Cidra

pharmaceutical plant, run by one of GlaxoKline's

subsidiaries.

They eventually pleaded guilty to the felony crime of distributing

adulterated drugs, yet not one single person in charge of the debacle

went to jail!

Why Should We Trust Felons?

Once you've been exposed to the seedy underbelly of the drug

business­the LEGAL drug business­you can't but realize that

we're dealing with a very large group of criminals and felons.

There's really no nicer way to put it.

After all, companies are run by human beings. Company logos don't

make decisions by themselves.

As it currently stands, the company usually gets away scot free or

with a

slap on the wrist. Oh, they do have to pay fines, and in this case it

was three quarters of a billion dollars, but when your profits are over

$100 billion, it's is not much more than a speeding ticket inconvenience

and widely regarded as merely the cost of doing business.

Unless actual individuals are held accountable, what's to stop those

individuals from perpetrating the same crime again and again?

Nothing!

No less than 19 drug companies made

AllBusiness.com's Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s.

What does that tell you?Keeping that fact in mind, Eckard's story

about the goings-on at the Cidra plant in Puerto Rico becomes less

shocking. Not because it isn't bad, but because it's already quite clear

that 'questionable business practice' has become 'standard practice'

within the pharmaceutical business.

What Happened at the Cidra Plant?

The problems at Cidra were first revealed by an FDA inspection.

Eckard's quality assurance team was then sent in by GlaxoKline (GSK)

to address those concerns, back in 2002. But when Eckard uncovered even

more disturbing issues than those found by the FDA, her superiors

simply ignored her.

Many may not realize this, but the FDA does NOT inspect drug

manufacturing facilities at regular intervals. In between spot-checks,

drug companies are left to police themselves. In the past year alone

we've seen numerous instances where this self-policing has failed, as a

long list of drugs have been recalled for a variety of different quality

and safety issues.

At the time, the Cidra plant was making 20 patented drugs for the US

market, and when Eckard saw what was happening at the plant, she was

shocked, and worried about patient safety. " All the systems were

broken, the facility was broken, the equipment was broken, the processes

were broken. It was the worst thing I had run across in my career, "

she tells 60 Minutes' correspondent Pelley.

Some of the problems included:

Using water contaminated with bacteria to make tablets Failures on production lines that led to inconsistent dosages Employees contaminating products by not following procedures

As an example, Eckard claims employees would open the lid to the

sealed tank containing the anti-bacterial ointment Bactroban, and stick

half their bodies into the tank to scrape it out. " It saved

money, " she replies when asked why anyone would consider doing such

a thing. But that's not even the worst of the problems Eckard uncovered.

GSK Knowingly Put Patients' Lives at Risk to Save a

Buck

Due to various production line failures, powerful medications were

also getting mixed up. Potent and potentially dangerous drugs were

literally ending up in the wrong bottles! The antidepressant Paxil was

mixed into bottles of Avandia, a diabetes drug. And Avandia was found in

packages of the over-the-counter antacid Tagamet. All in all, Eckard

identified nine different mix-ups of various drugs.

She urged the vice president of quality assurance for North America

to stop the trucks from leaving the dock the day she discovered the

mix-ups, and to shut down the factory and contact the FDA. But nothing

happened… And, when one such mix-up was later discovered by a patient,

GSK denied it ever happened. But " we all knew, they all knew

it was real, " Eckard says.

Finally, after eight months of reporting problems at the plant,

Eckard sent a summary to seven executives detailing the numerous quality

problems, warning that if the FDA knew of these issues, the plant would

likely be seized.

Just weeks later, Eckard was out of a job. Concerned for the welfare

of patients taking the affected drugs, she blew the whistle and notified

the FDA. Federal agents searched the plant and seized hundreds of

millions of dollars' worth of defective drugs. In the end, GSK pleaded

guilty to a felony: knowingly manufacturing and selling adulterated

drugs, manufactured between 2001 and 2005.

Their punishment for putting people's health at such incredible

risk?

A grand total of $150 million in criminal fines and $600 million in

civil penalties­little more than a slap on the wrist. None of the actual

people who allowed it to happen suffered any ill consequence as a result

of their actions, aside from the one who blew the whistle...

GlaxoKline (GSK) Blockbuster Drug Now Proven Too

Dangerous

Meanwhile, GSK's blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia made headlines

again last year when it became clear that the drug not only had major

risks, but that GSK kept the dangers of the drug under tight wraps­for a

very long time.

As it turns out, GSK

spent 11 years covering up trial

data

that showed that Avandia was a risky drug for the heart­again

providing indisputable evidence that the drug paradigm is about money,

not health.

Avandia topped the list of drugs linked to fatal adverse events in

2009, according to an analysis of U.S. FDA records, with 1,354 deaths

reported that year alone. As a result, the

FDA recently decided to restrict access to the drug.

In the US, Avandia is now only available to new patients if they are

unable to achieve glycemic control using other medications and, in

consultation with their health care professional, decide not to take a

different drug for medical reasons. Europe decided to ban the drug due to

its exaggerated health risks.

What Can You Expect from GSK in the Future?

Well, considering the fact that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son,

Murdoch, is now a member of GSK's corporate responsibility

committee (a position he entered in May 2009), I predict we'll see

more of the same types of cover-ups in the future.

Murdoch, as you may know, is also the chairman and

chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, and

chairman of BSkyB. I can only imagine the extent to which GSK can

benefit from having a media mogul on their pay roll. Clearly they've

thought this one through, and it makes perfect sense when you consider

the clout they need to keep the media quiet about their various

wrongdoings...

Having Murdoch in a role to oversee their corporate responsibilities

is like having a top mobster as the god-father of your child. I think

it's safe to say that if strings need to be pulled, they will be

pulled­hard.

Meanwhile, Scam-Buster Efforts by States and the Feds

Continue

Fortunately, states' attorneys general like Zoeller are gaining

ground in gathering support for rooting out the criminal acts that Big

Pharma continues to perpetuate. More and more, organizations like the

Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the

False Claims Act Legal Center, and

Politicol News are starting to investigate and publicize the illegal

– and criminal – actions that these companies have been getting away with

for years.

Last July, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

also

announced the formation of the Healthcare Fraud Prevention and

Enforcement Action Team, which together with the Department of

Justice, US Attorneys' Offices and other federal agencies will target

healthcare and drug fraud.

Thanks to the federal False Claims Act, state and federal

investigators have a gun that they can use to hunt down and prosecute

these heinous crimes with. If you visit the

False Claims Act Legal Center website,

you'll get a hint of just how much this type of corporate crime has been

going on. One thing should be crystal clear at this point though, and

that is that the drug industry simply cannot be trusted. They

have the criminal history to prove it.

A Safety Issue Even More Disturbing than that of Unsafe Drugs

One aspect that truly worries me is that while the criminal cases

we've seen in the past several years are related to drugs, many of these

companies, including GSK, also produce VACCINES.

And guess what?

They're typically not liable for damages from, or harm done by,

contaminated or otherwise dangerous vaccines! We've recently seen

evidence of " mistakes " in vaccine manufacturing as well,

but vaccine makers are rarely if ever punished for these willful errors

and omissions, which should provide you some further food for

though

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com

Vaccine Dangers, Childhood Disease Classes & Homeopathy

Online/email courses - next classes start December 2 & 3, 2010 and

January 6 & 7

[Guest guest]

Added Mercola's comments below

You think its any different for vaccines?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/01/18/sixty-minutes-exposes-why-you-cant-trust-drug-companies.aspx

SEE VIDEO on webpage

Captured on Tape: 60 Minutes Exposes the Maker of the #1 Most Fatal Drug

of 2009

Drug company whistle-blower Cheryl Eckard talks about her experience

trying to fix problems at GlaxoKline. Her discoveries about

the dangerous practices of the company made her a key figure in a federal

lawsuit.

You may remember this

story from last November when it first hit the news. But in the 60

Minutes interview above, whistleblower Cheryl Eckard opens up to reveal

even more disturbing details about the gross negligence at the Cidra

pharmaceutical plant, run by one of GlaxoKline's

subsidiaries.

They eventually pleaded guilty to the felony crime of distributing

adulterated drugs, yet not one single person in charge of the debacle

went to jail!

Why Should We Trust Felons?

Once you've been exposed to the seedy underbelly of the drug

business­the LEGAL drug business­you can't but realize that

we're dealing with a very large group of criminals and felons.

There's really no nicer way to put it.

After all, companies are run by human beings. Company logos don't

make decisions by themselves.

As it currently stands, the company usually gets away scot free or

with a

slap on the wrist. Oh, they do have to pay fines, and in this case it

was three quarters of a billion dollars, but when your profits are over

$100 billion, it's is not much more than a speeding ticket inconvenience

and widely regarded as merely the cost of doing business.

Unless actual individuals are held accountable, what's to stop those

individuals from perpetrating the same crime again and again?

Nothing!

No less than 19 drug companies made

AllBusiness.com's Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s.

What does that tell you?Keeping that fact in mind, Eckard's story

about the goings-on at the Cidra plant in Puerto Rico becomes less

shocking. Not because it isn't bad, but because it's already quite clear

that 'questionable business practice' has become 'standard practice'

within the pharmaceutical business.

What Happened at the Cidra Plant?

The problems at Cidra were first revealed by an FDA inspection.

Eckard's quality assurance team was then sent in by GlaxoKline (GSK)

to address those concerns, back in 2002. But when Eckard uncovered even

more disturbing issues than those found by the FDA, her superiors

simply ignored her.

Many may not realize this, but the FDA does NOT inspect drug

manufacturing facilities at regular intervals. In between spot-checks,

drug companies are left to police themselves. In the past year alone

we've seen numerous instances where this self-policing has failed, as a

long list of drugs have been recalled for a variety of different quality

and safety issues.

At the time, the Cidra plant was making 20 patented drugs for the US

market, and when Eckard saw what was happening at the plant, she was

shocked, and worried about patient safety. " All the systems were

broken, the facility was broken, the equipment was broken, the processes

were broken. It was the worst thing I had run across in my career, "

she tells 60 Minutes' correspondent Pelley.

Some of the problems included:

Using water contaminated with bacteria to make tablets Failures on production lines that led to inconsistent dosages Employees contaminating products by not following procedures

As an example, Eckard claims employees would open the lid to the

sealed tank containing the anti-bacterial ointment Bactroban, and stick

half their bodies into the tank to scrape it out. " It saved

money, " she replies when asked why anyone would consider doing such

a thing. But that's not even the worst of the problems Eckard uncovered.

GSK Knowingly Put Patients' Lives at Risk to Save a

Buck

Due to various production line failures, powerful medications were

also getting mixed up. Potent and potentially dangerous drugs were

literally ending up in the wrong bottles! The antidepressant Paxil was

mixed into bottles of Avandia, a diabetes drug. And Avandia was found in

packages of the over-the-counter antacid Tagamet. All in all, Eckard

identified nine different mix-ups of various drugs.

She urged the vice president of quality assurance for North America

to stop the trucks from leaving the dock the day she discovered the

mix-ups, and to shut down the factory and contact the FDA. But nothing

happened… And, when one such mix-up was later discovered by a patient,

GSK denied it ever happened. But " we all knew, they all knew

it was real, " Eckard says.

Finally, after eight months of reporting problems at the plant,

Eckard sent a summary to seven executives detailing the numerous quality

problems, warning that if the FDA knew of these issues, the plant would

likely be seized.

Just weeks later, Eckard was out of a job. Concerned for the welfare

of patients taking the affected drugs, she blew the whistle and notified

the FDA. Federal agents searched the plant and seized hundreds of

millions of dollars' worth of defective drugs. In the end, GSK pleaded

guilty to a felony: knowingly manufacturing and selling adulterated

drugs, manufactured between 2001 and 2005.

Their punishment for putting people's health at such incredible

risk?

A grand total of $150 million in criminal fines and $600 million in

civil penalties­little more than a slap on the wrist. None of the actual

people who allowed it to happen suffered any ill consequence as a result

of their actions, aside from the one who blew the whistle...

GlaxoKline (GSK) Blockbuster Drug Now Proven Too

Dangerous

Meanwhile, GSK's blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia made headlines

again last year when it became clear that the drug not only had major

risks, but that GSK kept the dangers of the drug under tight wraps­for a

very long time.

As it turns out, GSK

spent 11 years covering up trial

data

that showed that Avandia was a risky drug for the heart­again

providing indisputable evidence that the drug paradigm is about money,

not health.

Avandia topped the list of drugs linked to fatal adverse events in

2009, according to an analysis of U.S. FDA records, with 1,354 deaths

reported that year alone. As a result, the

FDA recently decided to restrict access to the drug.

In the US, Avandia is now only available to new patients if they are

unable to achieve glycemic control using other medications and, in

consultation with their health care professional, decide not to take a

different drug for medical reasons. Europe decided to ban the drug due to

its exaggerated health risks.

What Can You Expect from GSK in the Future?

Well, considering the fact that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son,

Murdoch, is now a member of GSK's corporate responsibility

committee (a position he entered in May 2009), I predict we'll see

more of the same types of cover-ups in the future.

Murdoch, as you may know, is also the chairman and

chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, and

chairman of BSkyB. I can only imagine the extent to which GSK can

benefit from having a media mogul on their pay roll. Clearly they've

thought this one through, and it makes perfect sense when you consider

the clout they need to keep the media quiet about their various

wrongdoings...

Having Murdoch in a role to oversee their corporate responsibilities

is like having a top mobster as the god-father of your child. I think

it's safe to say that if strings need to be pulled, they will be

pulled­hard.

Meanwhile, Scam-Buster Efforts by States and the Feds

Continue

Fortunately, states' attorneys general like Zoeller are gaining

ground in gathering support for rooting out the criminal acts that Big

Pharma continues to perpetuate. More and more, organizations like the

Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the

False Claims Act Legal Center, and

Politicol News are starting to investigate and publicize the illegal

– and criminal – actions that these companies have been getting away with

for years.

Last July, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

also

announced the formation of the Healthcare Fraud Prevention and

Enforcement Action Team, which together with the Department of

Justice, US Attorneys' Offices and other federal agencies will target

healthcare and drug fraud.

Thanks to the federal False Claims Act, state and federal

investigators have a gun that they can use to hunt down and prosecute

these heinous crimes with. If you visit the

False Claims Act Legal Center website,

you'll get a hint of just how much this type of corporate crime has been

going on. One thing should be crystal clear at this point though, and

that is that the drug industry simply cannot be trusted. They

have the criminal history to prove it.

A Safety Issue Even More Disturbing than that of Unsafe Drugs

One aspect that truly worries me is that while the criminal cases

we've seen in the past several years are related to drugs, many of these

companies, including GSK, also produce VACCINES.

And guess what?

They're typically not liable for damages from, or harm done by,

contaminated or otherwise dangerous vaccines! We've recently seen

evidence of " mistakes " in vaccine manufacturing as well,

but vaccine makers are rarely if ever punished for these willful errors

and omissions, which should provide you some further food for

though

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com

Vaccine Dangers, Childhood Disease Classes & Homeopathy

Online/email courses - next classes start December 2 & 3, 2010 and

January 6 & 7

[Guest guest]

Added Mercola's comments below

You think its any different for vaccines?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/01/18/sixty-minutes-exposes-why-you-cant-trust-drug-companies.aspx

SEE VIDEO on webpage

Captured on Tape: 60 Minutes Exposes the Maker of the #1 Most Fatal Drug

of 2009

Drug company whistle-blower Cheryl Eckard talks about her experience

trying to fix problems at GlaxoKline. Her discoveries about

the dangerous practices of the company made her a key figure in a federal

lawsuit.

You may remember this

story from last November when it first hit the news. But in the 60

Minutes interview above, whistleblower Cheryl Eckard opens up to reveal

even more disturbing details about the gross negligence at the Cidra

pharmaceutical plant, run by one of GlaxoKline's

subsidiaries.

They eventually pleaded guilty to the felony crime of distributing

adulterated drugs, yet not one single person in charge of the debacle

went to jail!

Why Should We Trust Felons?

Once you've been exposed to the seedy underbelly of the drug

business­the LEGAL drug business­you can't but realize that

we're dealing with a very large group of criminals and felons.

There's really no nicer way to put it.

After all, companies are run by human beings. Company logos don't

make decisions by themselves.

As it currently stands, the company usually gets away scot free or

with a

slap on the wrist. Oh, they do have to pay fines, and in this case it

was three quarters of a billion dollars, but when your profits are over

$100 billion, it's is not much more than a speeding ticket inconvenience

and widely regarded as merely the cost of doing business.

Unless actual individuals are held accountable, what's to stop those

individuals from perpetrating the same crime again and again?

Nothing!

No less than 19 drug companies made

AllBusiness.com's Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s.

What does that tell you?Keeping that fact in mind, Eckard's story

about the goings-on at the Cidra plant in Puerto Rico becomes less

shocking. Not because it isn't bad, but because it's already quite clear

that 'questionable business practice' has become 'standard practice'

within the pharmaceutical business.

What Happened at the Cidra Plant?

The problems at Cidra were first revealed by an FDA inspection.

Eckard's quality assurance team was then sent in by GlaxoKline (GSK)

to address those concerns, back in 2002. But when Eckard uncovered even

more disturbing issues than those found by the FDA, her superiors

simply ignored her.

Many may not realize this, but the FDA does NOT inspect drug

manufacturing facilities at regular intervals. In between spot-checks,

drug companies are left to police themselves. In the past year alone

we've seen numerous instances where this self-policing has failed, as a

long list of drugs have been recalled for a variety of different quality

and safety issues.

At the time, the Cidra plant was making 20 patented drugs for the US

market, and when Eckard saw what was happening at the plant, she was

shocked, and worried about patient safety. " All the systems were

broken, the facility was broken, the equipment was broken, the processes

were broken. It was the worst thing I had run across in my career, "

she tells 60 Minutes' correspondent Pelley.

Some of the problems included:

Using water contaminated with bacteria to make tablets Failures on production lines that led to inconsistent dosages Employees contaminating products by not following procedures

As an example, Eckard claims employees would open the lid to the

sealed tank containing the anti-bacterial ointment Bactroban, and stick

half their bodies into the tank to scrape it out. " It saved

money, " she replies when asked why anyone would consider doing such

a thing. But that's not even the worst of the problems Eckard uncovered.

GSK Knowingly Put Patients' Lives at Risk to Save a

Buck

Due to various production line failures, powerful medications were

also getting mixed up. Potent and potentially dangerous drugs were

literally ending up in the wrong bottles! The antidepressant Paxil was

mixed into bottles of Avandia, a diabetes drug. And Avandia was found in

packages of the over-the-counter antacid Tagamet. All in all, Eckard

identified nine different mix-ups of various drugs.

She urged the vice president of quality assurance for North America

to stop the trucks from leaving the dock the day she discovered the

mix-ups, and to shut down the factory and contact the FDA. But nothing

happened… And, when one such mix-up was later discovered by a patient,

GSK denied it ever happened. But " we all knew, they all knew

it was real, " Eckard says.

Finally, after eight months of reporting problems at the plant,

Eckard sent a summary to seven executives detailing the numerous quality

problems, warning that if the FDA knew of these issues, the plant would

likely be seized.

Just weeks later, Eckard was out of a job. Concerned for the welfare

of patients taking the affected drugs, she blew the whistle and notified

the FDA. Federal agents searched the plant and seized hundreds of

millions of dollars' worth of defective drugs. In the end, GSK pleaded

guilty to a felony: knowingly manufacturing and selling adulterated

drugs, manufactured between 2001 and 2005.

Their punishment for putting people's health at such incredible

risk?

A grand total of $150 million in criminal fines and $600 million in

civil penalties­little more than a slap on the wrist. None of the actual

people who allowed it to happen suffered any ill consequence as a result

of their actions, aside from the one who blew the whistle...

GlaxoKline (GSK) Blockbuster Drug Now Proven Too

Dangerous

Meanwhile, GSK's blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia made headlines

again last year when it became clear that the drug not only had major

risks, but that GSK kept the dangers of the drug under tight wraps­for a

very long time.

As it turns out, GSK

spent 11 years covering up trial

data

that showed that Avandia was a risky drug for the heart­again

providing indisputable evidence that the drug paradigm is about money,

not health.

Avandia topped the list of drugs linked to fatal adverse events in

2009, according to an analysis of U.S. FDA records, with 1,354 deaths

reported that year alone. As a result, the

FDA recently decided to restrict access to the drug.

In the US, Avandia is now only available to new patients if they are

unable to achieve glycemic control using other medications and, in

consultation with their health care professional, decide not to take a

different drug for medical reasons. Europe decided to ban the drug due to

its exaggerated health risks.

What Can You Expect from GSK in the Future?

Well, considering the fact that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son,

Murdoch, is now a member of GSK's corporate responsibility

committee (a position he entered in May 2009), I predict we'll see

more of the same types of cover-ups in the future.

Murdoch, as you may know, is also the chairman and

chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, and

chairman of BSkyB. I can only imagine the extent to which GSK can

benefit from having a media mogul on their pay roll. Clearly they've

thought this one through, and it makes perfect sense when you consider

the clout they need to keep the media quiet about their various

wrongdoings...

Having Murdoch in a role to oversee their corporate responsibilities

is like having a top mobster as the god-father of your child. I think

it's safe to say that if strings need to be pulled, they will be

pulled­hard.

Meanwhile, Scam-Buster Efforts by States and the Feds

Continue

Fortunately, states' attorneys general like Zoeller are gaining

ground in gathering support for rooting out the criminal acts that Big

Pharma continues to perpetuate. More and more, organizations like the

Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the

False Claims Act Legal Center, and

Politicol News are starting to investigate and publicize the illegal

– and criminal – actions that these companies have been getting away with

for years.

Last July, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

also

announced the formation of the Healthcare Fraud Prevention and

Enforcement Action Team, which together with the Department of

Justice, US Attorneys' Offices and other federal agencies will target

healthcare and drug fraud.

Thanks to the federal False Claims Act, state and federal

investigators have a gun that they can use to hunt down and prosecute

these heinous crimes with. If you visit the

False Claims Act Legal Center website,

you'll get a hint of just how much this type of corporate crime has been

going on. One thing should be crystal clear at this point though, and

that is that the drug industry simply cannot be trusted. They

have the criminal history to prove it.

A Safety Issue Even More Disturbing than that of Unsafe Drugs

One aspect that truly worries me is that while the criminal cases

we've seen in the past several years are related to drugs, many of these

companies, including GSK, also produce VACCINES.

And guess what?

They're typically not liable for damages from, or harm done by,

contaminated or otherwise dangerous vaccines! We've recently seen

evidence of " mistakes " in vaccine manufacturing as well,

but vaccine makers are rarely if ever punished for these willful errors

and omissions, which should provide you some further food for

though

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com

Vaccine Dangers, Childhood Disease Classes & Homeopathy

Online/email courses - next classes start December 2 & 3, 2010 and

January 6 & 7

[Guest guest]

Added Mercola's comments below

You think its any different for vaccines?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/01/18/sixty-minutes-exposes-why-you-cant-trust-drug-companies.aspx

SEE VIDEO on webpage

Captured on Tape: 60 Minutes Exposes the Maker of the #1 Most Fatal Drug

of 2009

Drug company whistle-blower Cheryl Eckard talks about her experience

trying to fix problems at GlaxoKline. Her discoveries about

the dangerous practices of the company made her a key figure in a federal

lawsuit.

You may remember this

story from last November when it first hit the news. But in the 60

Minutes interview above, whistleblower Cheryl Eckard opens up to reveal

even more disturbing details about the gross negligence at the Cidra

pharmaceutical plant, run by one of GlaxoKline's

subsidiaries.

They eventually pleaded guilty to the felony crime of distributing

adulterated drugs, yet not one single person in charge of the debacle

went to jail!

Why Should We Trust Felons?

Once you've been exposed to the seedy underbelly of the drug

business­the LEGAL drug business­you can't but realize that

we're dealing with a very large group of criminals and felons.

There's really no nicer way to put it.

After all, companies are run by human beings. Company logos don't

make decisions by themselves.

As it currently stands, the company usually gets away scot free or

with a

slap on the wrist. Oh, they do have to pay fines, and in this case it

was three quarters of a billion dollars, but when your profits are over

$100 billion, it's is not much more than a speeding ticket inconvenience

and widely regarded as merely the cost of doing business.

Unless actual individuals are held accountable, what's to stop those

individuals from perpetrating the same crime again and again?

Nothing!

No less than 19 drug companies made

AllBusiness.com's Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s.

What does that tell you?Keeping that fact in mind, Eckard's story

about the goings-on at the Cidra plant in Puerto Rico becomes less

shocking. Not because it isn't bad, but because it's already quite clear

that 'questionable business practice' has become 'standard practice'

within the pharmaceutical business.

What Happened at the Cidra Plant?

The problems at Cidra were first revealed by an FDA inspection.

Eckard's quality assurance team was then sent in by GlaxoKline (GSK)

to address those concerns, back in 2002. But when Eckard uncovered even

more disturbing issues than those found by the FDA, her superiors

simply ignored her.

Many may not realize this, but the FDA does NOT inspect drug

manufacturing facilities at regular intervals. In between spot-checks,

drug companies are left to police themselves. In the past year alone

we've seen numerous instances where this self-policing has failed, as a

long list of drugs have been recalled for a variety of different quality

and safety issues.

At the time, the Cidra plant was making 20 patented drugs for the US

market, and when Eckard saw what was happening at the plant, she was

shocked, and worried about patient safety. " All the systems were

broken, the facility was broken, the equipment was broken, the processes

were broken. It was the worst thing I had run across in my career, "

she tells 60 Minutes' correspondent Pelley.

Some of the problems included:

Using water contaminated with bacteria to make tablets Failures on production lines that led to inconsistent dosages Employees contaminating products by not following procedures

As an example, Eckard claims employees would open the lid to the

sealed tank containing the anti-bacterial ointment Bactroban, and stick

half their bodies into the tank to scrape it out. " It saved

money, " she replies when asked why anyone would consider doing such

a thing. But that's not even the worst of the problems Eckard uncovered.

GSK Knowingly Put Patients' Lives at Risk to Save a

Buck

Due to various production line failures, powerful medications were

also getting mixed up. Potent and potentially dangerous drugs were

literally ending up in the wrong bottles! The antidepressant Paxil was

mixed into bottles of Avandia, a diabetes drug. And Avandia was found in

packages of the over-the-counter antacid Tagamet. All in all, Eckard

identified nine different mix-ups of various drugs.

She urged the vice president of quality assurance for North America

to stop the trucks from leaving the dock the day she discovered the

mix-ups, and to shut down the factory and contact the FDA. But nothing

happened… And, when one such mix-up was later discovered by a patient,

GSK denied it ever happened. But " we all knew, they all knew

it was real, " Eckard says.

Finally, after eight months of reporting problems at the plant,

Eckard sent a summary to seven executives detailing the numerous quality

problems, warning that if the FDA knew of these issues, the plant would

likely be seized.

Just weeks later, Eckard was out of a job. Concerned for the welfare

of patients taking the affected drugs, she blew the whistle and notified

the FDA. Federal agents searched the plant and seized hundreds of

millions of dollars' worth of defective drugs. In the end, GSK pleaded

guilty to a felony: knowingly manufacturing and selling adulterated

drugs, manufactured between 2001 and 2005.

Their punishment for putting people's health at such incredible

risk?

A grand total of $150 million in criminal fines and $600 million in

civil penalties­little more than a slap on the wrist. None of the actual

people who allowed it to happen suffered any ill consequence as a result

of their actions, aside from the one who blew the whistle...

GlaxoKline (GSK) Blockbuster Drug Now Proven Too

Dangerous

Meanwhile, GSK's blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia made headlines

again last year when it became clear that the drug not only had major

risks, but that GSK kept the dangers of the drug under tight wraps­for a

very long time.

As it turns out, GSK

spent 11 years covering up trial

data

that showed that Avandia was a risky drug for the heart­again

providing indisputable evidence that the drug paradigm is about money,

not health.

Avandia topped the list of drugs linked to fatal adverse events in

2009, according to an analysis of U.S. FDA records, with 1,354 deaths

reported that year alone. As a result, the

FDA recently decided to restrict access to the drug.

In the US, Avandia is now only available to new patients if they are

unable to achieve glycemic control using other medications and, in

consultation with their health care professional, decide not to take a

different drug for medical reasons. Europe decided to ban the drug due to

its exaggerated health risks.

What Can You Expect from GSK in the Future?

Well, considering the fact that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son,

Murdoch, is now a member of GSK's corporate responsibility

committee (a position he entered in May 2009), I predict we'll see

more of the same types of cover-ups in the future.

Murdoch, as you may know, is also the chairman and

chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, and

chairman of BSkyB. I can only imagine the extent to which GSK can

benefit from having a media mogul on their pay roll. Clearly they've

thought this one through, and it makes perfect sense when you consider

the clout they need to keep the media quiet about their various

wrongdoings...

Having Murdoch in a role to oversee their corporate responsibilities

is like having a top mobster as the god-father of your child. I think

it's safe to say that if strings need to be pulled, they will be

pulled­hard.

Meanwhile, Scam-Buster Efforts by States and the Feds

Continue

Fortunately, states' attorneys general like Zoeller are gaining

ground in gathering support for rooting out the criminal acts that Big

Pharma continues to perpetuate. More and more, organizations like the

Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the

False Claims Act Legal Center, and

Politicol News are starting to investigate and publicize the illegal

– and criminal – actions that these companies have been getting away with

for years.

Last July, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

also

announced the formation of the Healthcare Fraud Prevention and

Enforcement Action Team, which together with the Department of

Justice, US Attorneys' Offices and other federal agencies will target

healthcare and drug fraud.

Thanks to the federal False Claims Act, state and federal

investigators have a gun that they can use to hunt down and prosecute

these heinous crimes with. If you visit the

False Claims Act Legal Center website,

you'll get a hint of just how much this type of corporate crime has been

going on. One thing should be crystal clear at this point though, and

that is that the drug industry simply cannot be trusted. They

have the criminal history to prove it.

A Safety Issue Even More Disturbing than that of Unsafe Drugs

One aspect that truly worries me is that while the criminal cases

we've seen in the past several years are related to drugs, many of these

companies, including GSK, also produce VACCINES.

And guess what?

They're typically not liable for damages from, or harm done by,

contaminated or otherwise dangerous vaccines! We've recently seen

evidence of " mistakes " in vaccine manufacturing as well,

but vaccine makers are rarely if ever punished for these willful errors

and omissions, which should provide you some further food for

though

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com

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